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OUR YOUNG FOLKS

A TALK ABOUT THE LION.

We wonder how many of THE PRAIRIE FARMER boys and girls have
seen the lion, "king of beasts," as he is called. Perhaps not all of you
as yet, though many of you doubtless will as the years roll on--and, by
the way, you will find that the older you grow the more quickly will
they speed away. So be careful in this, the beautiful springtime of your
lives, to so cultivate and make ready the garden of your minds that the
coming manhood and womanhood may not only find you with well developed
arms and limbs and muscles, ready to face the world and to help lift
some of its burdens, but also with a mind that has kept even pace with
the body--because of constant _growth_.

We think we will have to depart from our usual natural history articles
some day, and have a talk with the boys and girls on this subject of
growth--growth in its largest, broadest sense, the mind, soul, and body
all growing together into the stature of a perfect man.

But to return to the lion. This animal is the largest of the cat family
and is found, only in Asia and Africa. The Asiatic lion is not so large
nor so fierce as the African, and has a much smaller mane. The mane of
the African lion is long and thick, and gives the animal a very noble
appearance; the female, however, has no mane. The lion is always of one
color, that is, without spots or stripes, generally tawny, though the
mane is dark sometimes nearly black. The lion gets its full growth when
seven or eight years old, and lives usually about twenty-five years,
though some have been known to live much longer in menageries.

These animals see much better in the night than in the day, so they
generally hide away during the day and search for food in the gray dawn
of the morning. They feed chiefly on antelopes, zebras, giraffes, and
wild cattle. It is said that the lion rarely attacks man, only in cases
of extreme hunger; indeed, they seem somewhat afraid of man. Dr.
Livingstone says that when the lion meets a man in daylight it will stop
two or three seconds to stare at him, then turn slowly round and walk
off a few steps, looking over its shoulder, then begin to trot, and when
at last he thinks he is no longer seen will bound away like a hare. The
Doctor says also, that the roar of the lion is very like the cry of the
ostrich, but the former roars only at night, however, while the latter
cries only